LINDA SHOEMAKER: NAACP still fills needed purpose

SAN ANGELO, Texas - I thank Dudra Butler for her column about the NAACP and the contributions of leaders who worked hard to keep the San Angelo branch strong.

I saw Butler at the recent NAACP Annual Freedom Fund Banquet. She attends every year, one of many special friends I see at this event that raises money for scholarships.

I also visited with Ella Mae Johnson, former president of the local branch for many years. These two women exemplify those who are honored across America during Black History Month. This year's theme is "Black Women in American Culture and History."

Another outstanding woman of color was guest speaker at the banquet. Carmen Watkins, from Houston, posed this question: "The NAACP — Is it still necessary?"

Watkins told about her father, who was delivered at home by a midwife. A modern Jim Crow law in Georgia requires special identification to vote, the person's birth certificate. Watkins' family worked six months to secure this documentation in order for her father to cast his ballot.

She spoke of a current membership drive by the KKK in Oklahoma, and of living near the KKK headquarters in Pasadena during her childhood. Part of the first wave of desegregation, she was met with picket signs as she tried to exit the school bus. She remembers hate signs posted outside the KKK building in Pasadena.

To address this query about the need for NAACP locally, I read the comments at gosanangelo.com and believe the NAACP continues to be necessary to the struggle for justice and equality.

In response to Butler's article, one person said, "The present is now, so why does the NAACP even exist except to further exploit entitlements that should not be. Just an organization that continues to throw out the race card at every opportunity to keep the issue from finality."

Another wrote, "NAACP was once need (sic) but has continued to overstep its bounds for years." (I wondered about this. What bounds?)

Another said the NAACP should realize it has won the political battle of inequality years ago.

One guy agreed with the first, saying, "I know what you mean. In addition to the NAACP, the Jews have the Anti-Defamation League. The Muslims have something similar. Native Americans also have a similar organization. All to protect them from white Christians! What have we ever done to deserve this mistrust? All we have is the Republican Party. Thank goodness for them."

The last great thinker said, "Oh, and I always thought it was NAALCP — National Association for the Advancement of Liberal Colored People." (Anonymity provides cover, but the attitudesare clear.)

The folks who responded to Butler's column might say of Watkins' childhood experiences, "OK, but that was in the past." The KKK membership drive in Oklahoma is very much part of the present.

And if black Americans have won the battle against discrimination and inequality, why were San Angelo ISD schoolchildren not allowed to see and hear the president on television? I am still appalled that our school district's leaders allowed themselves to be intimidated by a few vocal and intolerant parents.

The decision to deny our schoolchildren the opportunity to hear President Obama talk about the importance of education only added credibility to lies and fear-mongering that are an added burden this president endures daily.

I dedicate this column to President Barack Obama. Facing perhaps the most mean-spirited opposition in recent history, he has never responded in kind. He has been diplomatic, even-tempered and intelligent in carrying out his duties.

Dealing with the most disastrous economic condition since the Great Depression, he calmly developed policies to turn the economy around and put Americans back to work. He has been successful in returning our country to its proper place of high regard in the international community.

When people lie about him and call him names, he has been a gentleman.

Obama has not raised anyone's taxes and has not tried to socialize the economy. Instead, his decisions enabled one of the world's greatest corporations, General Motors, to survive and flourish without resorting to bankruptcy, which most certainly would have resulted in untold job losses.

Just as he is again issuing permits to drill offshore following a disaster, he will also sign off on the Keystone pipeline — if significant, fact-based concerns about the environment are addressed to his satisfaction.

His accomplishments are far too lengthy for this article. I believe the president will win in November, and I invite you to join me in voting to re-elect our first black president, a great leader.